(MENAFN- The Peninsula) deepak john |
The Peninsula
Accelerating the development of Qatar's digital economy is one of the catalysts in the pursuit of economic prosperity and sustainability.
In line with the Qatar National Vision 2030, the Ministry of Communications and Information technology (MCIT) launched the Smart Qatar (TASMU) programme, which has positively impacted Qatar's digital economy through implementing digital strategies, enablers, key infrastructures, and investments.
Assistant Undersecretary of Digital Society Development at MCIT, Reem Al Mansoori stated in the second edition of Qatar's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: Pathways for Innovation report by HEC Paris in Qatar,“We see our role as helping to establish regulations on ideating, testing, deploying, and commercialising emerging technologies to help sectors deliver services to people, and strives to continuously deepen understanding of emerging technologies and innovation in priority areas and industries.
'It is important to highlight that achieving this transformation and realising the benefits requires a joint effort across the public and private sectors. No one entity can achieve this alone, we must support and work collaboratively and share knowledge.”
“Universities and academia are an integral part of it to help innovation, research, and development in ideating new solutions. It also requires cultivating a fast-growing community of tech start-ups and SMEs with large pools of investment capital. Having multi-national corporations co-found joint assets to create high-value jobs and develop local research expertise only enhances our collective work,” she added.
MCIT has supported a diverse ecosystem of stakeholders to collaborate in a meaningful way to achieve the Smart Qatar agenda for the country.
The Ministry has established and is actively creating a more comprehensive and diverse network of partnerships at a local and international level to create a space where we entities share learnings, knowledge, opportunities and findings, including Qatar Science and Technology Park, Invest Qatar, Ooredoo, Microsoft and Meta.
Various ministries and entities, such as the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Qatar Financial Center, Qatar Development Bank, Qatar Foundation, Qatar Science and Technology Park, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, HEC Paris in Qatar, Qatar Free Zone Authority, Invest Qatar, and others are all working towards creating a business-friendly ecosystem for the tech sector and enhancing the competitiveness and attractiveness of Qatar.
The official further stated,“We've seen opportunities in the ecosystem and collectively have established several initiatives to fill them and support startups.
The Innovation Lab, the Digital Incubation Center, the TASMU Accelerator, and TASMU Digital Valley, are some of the flagship programs launched to achieve interconnectedness among various stakeholders to utilise the full potential of our diverse ecosystem.”
To cater to the new needs of the community,“We will soon be launching two new programs in 2023, the 'TASMU Now Scale' program and 'SME Go Digital' program.
“Both will contribute towards strengthening support to matured and promising growth stage startups, digital companies, and SMEs that have potential to scale rapidly and help SMEs use digital technologies and build stronger digital capabilities to seize growth opportunities in the digital economy,” she said.